Maggie Blackbird

The MFRW Steam Hop is a monthly event hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. Focused on authors who write spicy or erotic fiction, it’s a chance for readers who are looking for books with erotic content to jump from one author to another, using the list of links at the bottom of the MFRW Post.

For my post, I am sharing an excerpt between Elliot Wasacase and Bryan Deschamps from After the Snow Melts, an interracial, young adult romance taking place in the decadent eighties.

He’s got to find a way to tell his best friend that he wants him—or lose him forever.

Blurb: Rich, popular, and gorgeous Bryan Deschamps pines from afar for his best friend. He loathes the idea of helping Elliot score a date for the snow dance. With his time running out, Bryan must find a way to capture his buddy’s attention—and that means boldly leaving an anonymous card in his main man’s locker.

Grateful for Bryan’s friendship ever since he moved from his Ojibway community to Thunder Bay to attend high school, Elliot Wasacase can’t disclose his true feelings, or he’ll lose the one true friend he has. Upon discovering an unsigned card in his locker from an admiring dude, he’s terrified someone knows his secret but suspects the person might be Bryan.

When Bryan’s car breaks down, stranding them on top of the mountain during a snowstorm, the two must either take a leap of faith or let fear and clashing beliefs cost them what they truly desire.

Genre(s):  Interracial, m/m contemporary romance, LGBT, young adult.
Heat Rating: Level 2
Publication Date:  March 13, 2020
Publisher:  eXtasy Books

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The only way to keep warm was doing what Elliot had done as a kid. It was why Mom and Dad had hauled out their mattress from the bedroom in front of the woodstove in the dead of a cold winter. He’d curl up with his brothers and sisters under thick quilts Mom had made. It was something they still did.

“Then we’d better get in the back.” Elliot opened the door.

“The back?” Bryan kept using the corners of his eyes to stare.

“Yeah. I’ve done this way too many times. It’s how my family sleeps when it gets too cold.” He got out and shoved the seat as close to the front as it would go so there’d be enough room for them to stretch their legs, but being a sports car, they’d be a can of sardines.

Here went nothing. He got in the back. “We drag our mattresses out from our bedrooms and spread them in the living room. It’s how we stay warm. The insulation in rez houses is totally lame. Call it living in a pad built from matchsticks.”

Bryan had his door open, his seat flipped back, and he was half in and half out of the car, staring.

Elliot grabbed the blanket and covered himself.

Still staring, Bryan clutched the top of the driver’s seat. He slowly got in. Their legs brushed, and so did their boots.

A lock of Bryan’s hair feathered his jawline. “We… we gonna talk about… what we came here to talk about?”

The howling wind should’ve been the culprit for Elliot’s shivering, but it wasn’t. He nestled deeper under the blanket. The warm body heat coming from Bryan coated Elliot in a cheerful day of summer. They were shoulder to shoulder. Hip to hip. Arm to arm. He’d never been this close to his best bud before.

God, this was too much like the song by Clever Lines, After the Snow Melts. They were two virginal white snowflakes, untouched. Pure. Wrapped in ice. Waiting for the melting. Only something hot dissolved icicles, and the heat beneath the blanket was tremendous, no longer fuzzy and snuggly. He shouldn’t have worn his thermal shirt.

“Well, are we?” Bryan licked his lips.

His pink tongue was hypnotizing, wet flesh needing a tasting, and ready to spin Elliot into a trance.

They were face to face, staring at one another, the stare deep enough to entrap Elliot in Bryan’s blue eyes that were pure icicles reflecting off a balmy winter lake. Their mouths were a breath away, ready to touch.

There was nothing to talk about. Everything was out in the open. They had only one thing left to do to seal the deal.

“I… I don’t know. D-did you wanna?” Elliot squeezed in a trickle of breath.

“Wanna what?” Bryan’s hushed question was a fire crackling inside Elliot’s ears, too soothing, too dreamy, enticing him to inch in a smidgen closer.

“Uh…”

Bryan’s eyes closed. His brown lashes feathered his skin, and his lips, a hiss away, molded against Elliot’s mouth. An eruption of excitement roared through Elliot’s veins. The softness of Bryan, the feel of his breaths on Elliot’s own skin was enough to shake his insides.

His first kiss.

Before panic could overwhelm him, he pushed aside the fear ready to burst his brain and moved his mouth in rhythm with Bryan’s slow dance. The perfect tempo—the beat of a song or the beat of Elliot’s hand drum. Their lips puckered and tasted, sheer bliss wrapping him in a veil of paradise.

Every hair stood on end, and every nerve crackled. Elliot eased his hand out from the blanket and laid his palm over Bryan’s cheek, then kept nibbling away, caressing Bryan’s lips. Exploring. Tasting. Savoring.

When Bryan licked at Elliot’s closed mouth, he met his best friend’s searching strokes and claimed Bryan’s wet flesh. Frenching. Shit, he’d never done this before either. Exploring Bryan’s mouth was heaven. He was slick, sexy, and sensual.

Elliot couldn’t stop the shivers or the fevered sensations igniting beneath his skin. He’d always worried about his first kiss, but kissing Bryan was natural. It was easy to probe his mouth. Easy to lick his tongue. Easy to touch the smoothness of his skin. Easy to take in his breaths of air coming from his nostrils.

Finally, Elliot had what he’d wanted from the first moment they’d met. He curled his fingers into Bryan’s glossy hair. Bryan lightly groaned. The unexpected moan was a thrill of excitement climbing Elliot’s spine. He never wanted the moment to end.

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